Noob Question - Attack Defense Chart

[Theogony_IX]

Hi all, this is the first table top rpg I've played and it will be a first for all of my fellow players too.  I've been tasked with learning the fine details of the game and GMing first to get us started.  I'm looking for a quick reference to how attack skills line up with defense skills, i.e. attack: fists - defend: fists, weapons.  I'm having some trouble keeping track of everything, and I know my players will too.

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I'm not finding it with any searches that I try.  Sorry for that, but any help is greatly appreciated.

[Haru]

It's pretty straight forward: Per the rules, Athletics is used to defend against any attack. It's sort of a combination of reacting to stuff happening around you and being harder to hit because you are moving around in a fight anyway.

Using other skills can either be a group decision, or you can do it with stunts. A player in my game, for example, is a living statue, so he decided to take a stunt that lets him roll Endurance instead of Athletics, representing the fact that he isn't dodging attacks, but rather he is ignoring them.

If you decide to allow, for example to let fists defend against fists attacks, that's just something everyone is going to be able to do, without the need of a stunt. I would be careful with that, though, because fights can become a bit stale if you always use the same skill for everything.

[Hick Jr]

Haru's got it. Here's how I do it, which mostly follows the rulebook-

-Athletics: Catch-all defense. You can use this to defend against everything. No attack trapping, and stunts/powers that give it an attack trapping tend to be sort of broken.
-Fists: Attacking with your body. Fists, claws, tail, horns, etc. Found on horrible monsters and martial artists. Can be used to defend against melee attacks.
-Weapons: Attacking with a weapon. Swords, spears, axes, lightsabers, chainsaws. Found on things like Sidhe Knights and Knights of the Cross. Can be used to defend against melee attacks.
-Guns: Attacking with a gun or a bow. Ranged weapons. Handguns, rifles, crossbows, longbows, laser pistols. Found on cops and military guys. Pretty typically a Pure Mortal skill. No defense trapping.

[Theogony_IX]

Ah hah, for some reason I thought is was more complicated than that.  No wonder there isn't a chart anywhere.  But that's exactly what I was looking for.  I'll use that and the info under social and mental conflicts to create a reference for my players.

Thanks, guys.

[Taran]

Generally I go:

Fists: defends Fists/claws (but not actual melee weapons or ranged attacks)
Weapons: defends fists/claws and other melee weapons (but not missile/thrown/ranged)
Athletics: dodges anything - melee and ranged.

Stunts messes changes that a lot.

If a player can make a good excuse to use another skill to dodge(like using weapons to parry a thrown weapon), then I'll allow it.  If they do it too much, I'd recommend they take a stunt.

[Hick Jr]

Social conflict is actually a lot more fluid with it's attack/defense stuff. Mostly you defend with Empathy or Rapport, but it's not nearly as concrete as physical conflict.

Mental conflict is a little weirder. You generally attack/defend with Discipline and Conviction. There's not a lot of variation outside of those skills, barring stunts.

Evocation is where it all goes out the window. Technically, the caster of an evocation attack can dictate which skill is used to defend against it, within reason. For example, a spell that threw a fireball at you would be defended against with Athletics, and a spell that tried to turn you to stone might be defended against with Endurance. Most GM's will allow you to defend with Athletics in all cases, however.

[Magicpockets]

Assuming no stunts are used:
Physical Combat:

• Athletics: Defends against any physical attack.
• Fists: Defends vs any melee attack.
• Weapons: Defends vs any melee attack and thrown weapon attack.

Social Combat:

• Discipline: Defends vs threats
• Empathy: Defends vs lies
• Presence: Defends vs any attacks targeting your reputation
• Rapport: Defends vs any social attack

[Sanctaphrax]

Evocation is where it all goes out the window. Technically, the caster of an evocation attack can dictate which skill is used to defend against it, within reason.

Nope.

Pretty sure there's nothing in the book which gives special defence-skill-choosing privileges to Evocation. People just infer that from one of the example spells, and there's no solid reason not to extend the inference to mundane attacks.

[Hick Jr]

Hm. I thought it was a couple of the example spells and something under the Attack section of evocation. I'm probably wrong. I haven't read YS in ages.

It seems like a pretty reasonable ruling, though. It doesn't really make sense to defend against, say, a neurotoxic gas evocation with Athletics.

[Taran]

Unless you manage to dodge the area...or find a pocket of clean air.   But that would be one of the examples of a player saying, "I see this spell being dodged with Endurance" and the GM giving the final ruling.

I think only Thaumaturgy let's you dictate the defending skill.

[Sanctaphrax]

1. There's at least one example spell attack that suggests a non-Athletics defence skill. How much  you read into that is up to you.

2. Making poison gas is really complex. Well beyond the limits of evocation.

3. Clouds can be dodged if you run quickly enough. Which is Athletics.

4. That sort of thinking is the major reason that spellcasting can break games. If a wizard can just describe an attack as undodgeable, a swordsman should be able to do the same.

[Silverblaze]

Assuming no stunts are used:
Physical Combat:

• Athletics: Defends against any physical attack.
• Fists: Defends vs any melee attack.
• Weapons: Defends vs any melee attack and thrown weapon attack.

Social Combat:

• Discipline: Defends vs threats
• Empathy: Defends vs lies
• Presence: Defends vs any attacks targeting your reputation
• Rapport: Defends vs any social attack

I assume melee attack in this case means armed or unarmed at a range of melee? Sword VS Fist for example.